I grew up in Alaska and as a young reporter, one of the toughest stories to cover was the crisis of domestic violence and violence against women in the native community.

Which is why it caught my eye that one of the sticking points holding up the re-authorization of the Federal Violence Against Women Act is a new provision that would extend protections to undocumented workers, members of the LGBT community and native women.

This advocacy video — with some pretty bleak statistics — is what grabbed my attention.

But VAWA remains on the shelf. A bi-partisan bill that extends protections to Native American women passed the US Senate on a bipartisan vote. But it’s been blocked in the House by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Republican.

VAWA has been around since 1994 and, when in place, gives additional funding for law enforcement aimed at protecting women, while requiring those convicted of domestic violence to pay restitution, and allowing more civil lawsuits against abusers.

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12 Comments on “Domestic violence in Native American community sparks Washington debate”

Reading the Hufpo article it appears the crux of the issue is giving the tribal courts jurisdiction over non-indians. They don’t have that authority and never have, seems like a logical sticking point. They are limited to jurisdiction over indians on tribal land and only to certain levels of crime according to what I can find.

Seems to me the problem would easily be solved by letting tribal PD’s hold alleged perp non-indians for the State boys. End of problem, justice served. What am I missing? Local PD’s and our State Police hold suspects for other agencies routinely. It’s no different on the rez.

Agreed, Arlo, that seems like such an obvious solution. I’d like to read something else about this before I form an opinion, because this article doesn’t quite explain why some people think a jurisdictional change is a necessary part of the bill … I get that the state police might not always be close enough to respond to an incident, but why couldn’t the tribal police hold a non-Indian suspect and then turn him over to the state police? It happens all the time, one agency responds to something because they’re closer, deals with the immediate situation and turns the case over to whoever should have jurisdiction once they get there.

Also, what kind of penalties could a tribal court impose anyway? Are there prisons they can send people to? Can they send people to state prisons? This article says most rapes of Indian women are by non-Indians, implying that a non-Indian can commit rape on a reservation, leave and never have to answer because of some jurisdictional vacuum … I kind of doubt that’s the case, though.

I am not sure. I think for example if you speed through Hogensburg you can get a ticket from the tribal police, it seems to me they are simply local law enforcement in that regard. But I certainly don’t understand the complexities but it would seem that the bill itself should still go forward, what do tribal issues have to do with victims who are gay or who are undocumented etc, sounds bogus.

Once again regardless of the reason, this makes Republicans look awful, its like they are totally tone deaf on these issues.

Anything else, I guess, even if the tribal police arrest you, you’d be in whatever town or county court would handle it. There are other parts of the country where tribal courts hear criminal cases, though, hence the dispute over this bill:

Mervel, you miss the larger point. It’s not the Republicans looking awful, it’s the media reporting the issue in such a way that the Republicans look awful. You have to read the article and understand the fluff to realize what the issue is. It in not, in any way, clearly state that the tribal courts have very limited authority over non-indians. In fact, it is made to sound as though you can rape and walk. That’s untrue.

Slant, bias, agenda. That should be the bigger story. This isn’t a political question, it’s a question of law.

In order to achieve justice, survivors of sexual violence [on reservations] frequently have to navigate a maze of tribal, state and federal law. The US federal government has created a complex interrelation between these three jurisdictions that undermines equality before the law and often allows perpetrators to evade justice. In some cases this has created areas of effective lawlessness which encourages violence. Action by US Congress is required to eliminate the possibility that complex jurisdictional rules and legislation in practice may deny survivors of sexual violence access to justice.

I remember reading years ago that non-native rapists of native American women really could walk.

Arlo, the only way Republicans can avoid the appearance that they just aren’t interested in a solution to the problem is to be proactive in trying to solve it, rather than simply blocking passage. There’s more here than spin.

Horse puckey Mervel and I DO know Walker. Look into tribal courts and what authority they have. Here I’ll make it easy for you- http://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/jurisdiction.htm What is happening here is an attempt to give tribal courts extra-legal jurisdiction, not an attempt to deny due process to a rape victim. Personally, I think tribal courts should be done away with and authority given to to the municipality. There’s the end of your problem. No more special courts with questionable ethics, procedures and punishment for certain groups. That’s not the rule of law. That’s a court based on ethnicity and that not justice.